1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thermal transfer ink ribbon cassette used in a printing apparatus having a thermal head, the ink ribbon cassette being provided with a cassette case for storing a thermal transfer ink ribbon and, more particularly, to a multiprinting thermal transfer ink ribbon cassette wherein an ink attached surface of the thermal transfer ink ribbon at the same position can be used for printing a plurality of times, and the ribbon cassette can be alternately mounted in the printing apparatus having the thermal head in the first loading posture and the second loading posture which is a turned over posture with respect to the first loading posture so that a feed direction of the thermal transfer ink ribbon in the printing apparatus can be changed.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional thermal transfer ink ribbon cassette used in a printing apparatus having a thermal head generally has two reel hubs. One end of the thermal transfer ink ribbon is fixed on one reel hub and is wound around this reel hub, and the other end of which is exposed outside the ribbon cassette between the two reel hubs and is then guided inside the ribbon cassette. The guided end is then fixed on the other reel hub. When printed matters printed by the printing apparatus described above are used for the business purpose, portion of a thermal ink ribbon used once is not reused, because many spots are formed in the once used portion of the ink ribbon, the spots being corresponding to the shapes of printed symbols such as characters, numerals, or lines, etc. on which no ink is attached or a little amount of ink is attached due to the transformation of most of ink to the printed symbols on the printed matter. When the thermal transfer ink ribbon used once is reused, no ink or little ink spots are formed in the printed characters, numerals, or lines in correspondence with the no ink or little ink spots on the once used portion in the ink ribbon.
Therefor, the conventional printing apparatus having a thermal head does not have a count displaying means for counting the number of times of use of the thermal transfer ink ribbon and displaying a count.
In recent years, however, a multiprinting thermal transfer ink ribbon cassette is developed and commercially available wherein an ink attached surface of the thermal transfer ink ribbon can be reused a plurality of times, and the ribbon cassette can be alternately mounted in the printing apparatus having the thermal head in the first loading posture and the second loading posture which is a turned over posture with respect to the first loading posture so that a feed direction of the thermal transfer ink ribbon in the printing apparatus can be changed. This multiprinting thermal transfer ink ribbon cassette can be sufficiently used within a predetermined number of times of use, even when printed matters printed by the printing apparatus are used for the business purpose. In other words, when the ink ribbon is used within the predetermined number of times, no ink or little ink spots are not formed in the printed characters, numerals, or lines. The multiprinting thermal transfer ink ribbon cassette is more economical than a conventional thermal transfer ink ribbon cassette which cannot be reused when it is used for printing symbols on a matter to be used for business purpose. Therefor, demand has arisen for using a multiprinting thermal transfer ink ribbon cassette when a printing apparatus having a thermal head is used for business purposes.
The multiprinting thermal transfer ink ribbon cassette can be used in the conventional printing apparatus provided with the thermal head but not with the count displaying means. However, if the number of uses of the multiprinting transfer ink ribbon is not accurately known, printing quality of the printed matter to be used for business purpose becomes low.
Printing apparatuses having count displaying means for counting the number of times of use of the ink ribbon or the printing means and for displaying the count are disclosed in Japanese patent disclosure (Kokai) No. 57-103880, Japanese patent publication No. 58-151273, and Japanese utility model disclosure (Kokai) No. 58-163268.
If a printing apparatus having a thermal head with a count displaying means for counting the number of times of use of the thermal transfer ink ribbon and displaying a counting number is developed with reference to the above references, problems which tend to be produced by use of a multiprinting thermal transfer ink ribbon cassette can be surely solved. However, a large amount of money is required to be invested to entirely replace the conventional non-counting printing apparatuses, each having a thermal head and capable of using a multiprinting thermal transfer ink ribbon cassette, with new thermal printing apparatuses having the count display means. In addition, the conventional printing apparatuses are of no use.